History 231 Reading Guide
The Empire and the Colonies: Colonial warfare in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
- Daniel K. Richter, “War and Culture: The Iroquois Experience” WMQ 3rd ser. 40.4 (1983): 528-559. JSTOR
Questions:
- Richter argues that Native Americans engaged in warfare from motives that differed from the motives and goals that brought Europeans into armed conflict.
- For the Iroquois, what was the cultural significance of warfare? What methods did the Iroquois use to achieve their goals?
- How did the role of warfare change for the Iroquois after sustained contact with Europeans? What caused the changes?
- How did those changes affect Iroquois relations with nearby Native Americans?
- How did the Iroquois respond to those changes in the years after 1700?